Junto: The power of a good team

How much more could you achieve with a good team around you? Who out there could inspire you to new thinking and levels of success? Which individuals could support you in your self-improvement? Who could you support in their self-development? How can a junto help?

These are all excellent questions to consider under the ‘who’ section of The Right Questions Framework. If we want the best chance of fulfilling our dreams, then we are going to need help. This can come in many forms but having a specific group to assist you is invaluable. This is where a junto comes in.

“Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.” – Oprah Winfrey

What is a Junto and what do they do?

A Junto is a group of people who unite for a common purpose. This makes them like a team, but a junto often sits outside formal working arrangements and may span various occupations or sectors.

Benjamin Franklin’s Junto – The Leather Apron Club

The most famous example of a junto is the Leather Apron Club, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1727 and based in Philadelphia. Franklin’s junto was all about improvement; the group sought to develop themselves and their community. They did this by meeting regularly, but informally, over a drink to debate important matters of the day. Every member also produced an essay (which could be on any subject) every three months to read to the company for further discussion.

The Junto had around twelve members of diverse backgrounds and professions. For example, Franklin’s Junto included merchants, surveyors, poets, mathematicians and master craftsmen. This provided a rich cognitive diversity; a catalytic combination for thinking innovatively.

The evening debates were of a Socratic nature, where there was a genuine desire to find truth, rather than win an argument. The junto had rules to enforce the positive nature of the dialogue and used poignant questions to start the discussions.

Questions for mutual betterment

The meetings centred around a specific question that gave a topic focus for the event. Here are some examples taken from Franklin’s autobiography:

1. Have you met with anything in the author you last read, remarkable, or suitable to be communicated to the Junto? particularly in history, morality, poetry, physic, travels, mechanic arts, or other parts of knowledge.
2. Have you lately heard of any citizen’s thriving well, and by what means?
3. Do you know of any fellow citizen, who has lately done a worthy action, deserving praise and imitation? or who has committed an error proper for us to be warned against and avoid?
4. Is there any man whose friendship you want, and which the Junto or any of them, can procure for you?
5. In what manner can the Junto, or any of them, assist you in any of your honourable designs?

These questions give a feel for the breadth of topics that Franklin’s Junto considered. In my experience, similar, open questions are a great way to spark lively conversation when working in a group coaching, workshop or junto environment.

What is the right number of people for a junto or mutual improvement group?

There is no perfect number of people for a junto, but when forming any mutual improvement group, it is worth considering the mechanics of communication. In essence, if you want meaningful conversation, you must limit the number of people involved.

Consider this: How many interactions would it take, if you wanted every individual in a group to speak to every other team member? Any guesses for a group of 4, 8 or 12 people? The answer can be surprising, as the attached diagram illustrates.

We might not easily calculate these exponential increases in connections, but we feel them intuitively. Think about the last group dinner you attended. How many people were there, around the table, and how well could they interact?

There is a reason why weddings and conferences often use circular tables for eight people. It is a manageable number. Next time you are at a function, party or networking event do a little experiment. Count the number of people who are in each huddle. Then watch count the number in the group when it has to divide to carry on meaningful conversation.

In my experience, discussion groups – whether at a party or in a group coaching context – generally peak at eight people. You might have more in a junto but that can take account of not everyone being present on every occasion, or that you might need to split into smaller groups to have a meaningful discussion.

How do you pick the right people for your team?

When picking the people for your junto or team consider these questions:

1. What is the key purpose or themes of the junto and why would someone want to join the group?
2. Bearing in mind your answer to the first question, who do you know in your network who would be most interested in joining?
3. Who could help you most with your self-improvement?
4. If you could pick, two, four or eight people to meet with regularly and discuss interesting matters, who would you go for and why?
5. How can you ensure the team is cognitively diverse? Which different characters, perspectives and interests could or should be represented?

You might also want to use the 4Cs from the section on picking a life coach or guide. You can consider:

• Character. When forming a junto, you want people of good character. Members need to want to genuinely support each other.
• Competence. The junto should be diverse and represent several different skills and competencies, but everyone should be competent in their communication skills and have good emotional intelligence.
• Chemistry. People don’t all need to be best friends but there should be mutual respect. Quality interactions rely on the ability to meet comfortably and the trust to share intimately.
• Confidentiality. Discussions, especially when people share personal information, should remain confidential. Members should not share anything without another’s consent. At the very least meetings should be held in accordance with the Chatham House Rule. Namely that:

“When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.”

The Quest

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Master the tool: picking the people for your Junto

Take some time now to consider who you might invite to your junto. Take at least ten minutes to go through the 5 steps listed above, giving you a couple of minutes per step.

Do you want further help finding and joining a Junto?

Coaching groups often form the basis of a successful junto. This is because they form around a common purpose with all members being interested in self-improvement. Coaching groups are rarely from the same work team or organisation so there is often good cognitive and experiential diversity present in such groups.

If you would be interested in joining a coaching group or junto, please do send me a message via the contact page.